1999 Peugeot 106 GTi 1.6 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Faults:

I have had my Pug 106GTI for about 2 weeks, at first everything was OK, but after 7 or 8 days things began to go wrong for me!

I found out my car had been in a front end bump, nothing major and has been repaired correctly.

I need my Alternator replacing, as it will not charge up correctly resulting in me loosing the Power steering.

The Drive shafts ceil needs replacing.

The Ball joint has split.

And either my Exhaust (which is blowing from the Cat) OR the Head Gasket is broken as the car blows out white smoke. The car is not loosing water so I think the Exhaust might be the problem.

The Alarm goes of on its own (sensor to sensitive)

The Engine smells slightly damp when warm; I believe the previous owner had not driven the car a great deal basically leaving it standing! So I think the car just needs to dry out?

General Comments:

Apart from the problems the car has been superb, but then again I don't really see all the faults as a problem because when I have had them repaired they are less likely to go again, leaving me some soft of satisfaction.

My previous car Swift GTI was worse in respect to reliability, and performance as my 106 GTI would leave it standing all day long and I know this as my mate as got a Swift GTI, also I have managed to beat my mates Clio 16V, Saxo VTR/VTS, but with the VTS it can get a little tricky, if both car are standard like mine is the Pug should win.

I had some trouble with a VTS, but it had been Modified (ECU re-map, Rev Limiters had been removed, Filter, Exhaust - Standard Mods) I admit the car beat me, but not by a great deal, but it was fun at the time. I have also been destroyed by a 175Bhp MK2 Astra GTE.

At the moment my car is slightly underpowered, but when it as been repaired it should be as good as new.

General comment - I love this car and I would recommend anybody to buy one, once the teething problems have been sorted you have a perfect machine.

2nd Apr 2003, 13:21

On this car the white smoke is more than likely a blowing head gasket. If you are lucky it may just be condensation. On my 1998 model (at 17000 miles!) it went without noticeably losing any water. Turned the key one day and nothing happened - turned out the engine was full of water that had leaked in!

Whilst it's undeniably a great car, I'm not really sure how valid modifying one of these is. Why spend the money on souping up an already souped up shopping trolley with iffy French build quality when you can eventually put it toward a better car? At the end of the day you'll still be in a 106, no matter how much you spend.